March 18, 2008

Thanks to all of you who got current on your tip please feedback. Meow. I get a lot of requests for suggestions on where to eat each week, a few from friends, most from total strangers, some quite confounding, but there’s nothing quite like when you need to come up with your own perfect evening. I want to share what I put together to celebrate my darling mother’s retirement from nursing this past Friday; I wanted it to be quite the epic evening to honor her 40-plus years of nursing. We started at Bix for cocktails (love the Sazeracs there) and appetizers, like their famed potato pillows with caviar and crème fraîche, a refreshing ceviche with cilantro oil and toasted corn nuts (!), the incomparable steak tartare, and crisp fried oysters. Nothing beats the white-jacketed service here, especially if you’re lucky enough to get Stu, the master of tableside flair. My family can’t wait to go back for a full jazzy dinner.

Next, we strolled over to Kokkari for our mains, which turned into a rustic family-style feast of all my favorites: the lamb’s tongues, the taramosalata and pita, grilled octopus, the pikti (a terrine of trotter and head), and of course a whole fish and the famed lamb chops. It was hard to pull ourselves away from ordering the galatboureko for dessert, but fortunately we had quite the finale awaiting us. We ambled to Rubicon, where we finished the evening sharing Nicole Krasinski’s unique and gorgeous desserts, like a palate-cleaning rhubarb sorbet with pine nuts and an elderflower meringue, and the decadent milk chocolate toffee pudding with candied Buddha’s hand and long pepper cream, plus some wonderful dessert wines. Yup, the evening was total tablehopper style, and I recommend trying the itinerary highly if you’re looking for an unconventional and special night of dining, with some much-needed walks in between.

I know St. Patrick’s Day was yesterday (how’s your head?), but in honor of the fab color green, I thought a review of Absinthe Brasserie & Bar was in order. Shall we begin? Let's.

~ Marcia